| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Enchanted Island of Yew by L. Frank Baum: accomplished his task, the fairy prince went to bed and slept
peacefully the remainder of the night.
The next morning the blond Ki-Ki and all the army of Twi, which had
been won to their cause, came climbing up the silver steps and over
the wall to the palace of the green High Ki; but what was their
amazement to find the twin palaces separated by a wall so high that no
ladders nor steps they possessed could reach to the top! It had been
built in a single night, and only Prince Marvel and his fairy friends
knew how the work had been done so quickly.
The yellow High Ki, coming downstairs to breakfast with her friends,
found herself securely shut in from her enemies, and the bald-headed
The Enchanted Island of Yew |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen: Blank (we'll call him that if you don't mind) want in such a
very queer house as Number 20? It's altogether a very odd case,
isn't it?"
"It is indeed, Austin; an extraordinary case. I
didn't think, when I asked you about my old friend, I should
strike on such strange metal. Well, I must be off; good-day."
Villiers went away, thinking of his own conceit of the
Chinese boxes; here was quaint workmanship indeed.
IV
THE DISCOVERY IN PAUL STREET
A few months after Villers'meeting with Herbert, Mr.
The Great God Pan |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Talisman by Walter Scott: moonbeam through the fleecy cloud of a summer night, and again a
rosebud lay at the feet of the Knight of the Leopard.
This second intimation could not be accidental---it could not be
fortuitous, the resemblance of that half-seen but beautiful
female hand with one which his lips had once touched, and, while
they touched it, had internally sworn allegiance to the lovely
owner. Had further proof been wanting, there was the glimmer of
that matchless ruby ring on that snow-white finger, whose
invaluable worth Kenneth would yet have prized less than the
slightest sign which that finger could have made; and, veiled
too, as she was, he might see, by chance or by favour, a stray
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The fourth excerpt represents the element of Earth. It speaks of physical influences and the impact of the unseen on the visible world, and is drawn from The Talisman by Walter Scott: into a hand-gallop, began, in a voice as composed and even as if
he had been walking for the last hour, a descant upon the
excellence of his coursers to the Scot, who, breathless, half
blind, half deaf, and altogether giddy; from the rapidity of this
singular ride, hardly comprehended the words which flowed so
freely from his companion.
"These horses," he said, "are of the breed called the Winged,
equal in speed to aught excepting the Borak of the Prophet. They
are fed on the golden barley of Yemen, mixed with spices and with
a small portion of dried sheep's flesh. Kings have given
provinces to possess them, and their age is active as their
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